Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]

[BetBlowWhistler]

Well, first off what a brilliant day. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the single most effective thing we did today was to give out those leaflets. Without them it really would have been a bit disastrous (top marks to Alex for sorting those out).

I can't believe how many people were interested in what we had to say, and as has already been mentioned, most were astonished and horrified. Usually the first thing anyone said was "that can't be legal can it?" - We met some real characters on the street today, not least of which were the other protesters of course :P

I now have terrible cramp. Does anyone know how to get rid of a golf-ball sized muscle lump?

On a side note, one smartly turned out chap came over early on who smiled at Alex and asked him if he was disappointed with the turn-out, only to be met by our smiling faces and the offer of a leaflet for his perusal. He seemed so chuffed that we strongly suspected he was a Phorm exec. He even managed to take our picture, which I strongly suspect will make it into the Phorm PR release about the event, as at the time there were only 6 of us present.

Like Jtechs and Madslug I lost count of how many leaflets I handed out, but I was measuring the volume in inches, that should tell you something.

When Baroness Miller turned up with her attendant in tow I was very happy to discover that she comes across as a very warm and caring person, very down to earth and certainly not afraid to mix with the Hoi-Paloi (sp?). The lack of numbers was certainly made up for by the friendly and approachable atmosphere. No-one turned up to spoil the day - they would have stood out like a sore thumb.

Top job everyone, and looking forward to Pete's report. Oh, and there was a reporter from ZDNet who went with Alex to the Police station, but I had to leave at that point.

[Deko]

Price	Size	Bid	Offer	Time	     Buy	Sell
675	37500	650	725	12:51:23	 	37,500
675	18750	650	725	12:51:48	 	18,750
675	32600	650	725	15:52:36	 	32,600
700	5000	675	725	15:52:54	 	 
700	1000	675	725	15:53:24	 	 
675	82500	675	725	15:53:52	 	82,500
750	2500	675	725	15:58:02	2,500	 
675	3000	675	775	16:00:46	 	3,000
770	300	675	775	16:00:55	300	 
800	500	750	825	16:13:32	500	 
850	500	775	850	16:16:25	500	 
900	400	800	900	16:20:27	400	 
850	1000	800	900	16:21:50	 	 
850	1000	800	900	16:22:17	 	 
900	500	800	900	16:25:25	500	 
900	2000	800	900	16:30:36	2,000	 
900	500	800	900	16:31:08	500	 
712.75	4000	800	900	16:35:31	 	4,000
714.75	4000	800	900	16:35:25	 	4,000

[Graham M]

hmm?

[Kursk]

Originally Posted by serial

A quick pic (click to enlarge):


There were others there but across the street handing out leaflets.

Never in the field of cyber conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Thank you .

[tarka]

Originally Posted by Kursk

Never in the field of cyber conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Thank you .

You can't argue with that!

Thank you to all who were able to get there and spread the word!

[Rchivist]

Originally Posted by bluecar1

something funny happening with the shares today, iii,lse and official stock exchange pages listing volumes of 130,000+ but nowhere seems to be displaying anywhere near this volume?? and the price went up

i am confused

peter

the last week or so the trades have been a bit strange - loads of "late trades" - trades appearing on the wrong day, - several days late.I expect there will be some late trades shown tomorrow. Google has a fall back down to 714.75 on its graph which LSE doesn't.

I don't profess to understand this stuff!

Edit - thanks to Deko - that seems to cover the gaps. I see there were no SELL entries at values higher than 714.75, and most of the selling was early in the day at 650.

The buying was small volume in the middle of the day, and seemed to be at above the going rate - small purchases at up to 900 but no SELLS at anywhere near that rate.

[mark777]

A big thanks to all those who managed to get down to London today.

The link below appears to be where BT will post a summary of the AGM questions. There is nothing there yet, but should be later tomorrow.

http://www.btplc.com/Sharesandperfor.../Questions.htm

Hopefully some fretting going on in BT bunker tonight.

Presumably they will post the answers as well, and they wouldn't try to spin shareholders, would they?

[jelv]

Originally Posted by Deko

Price	Size	Bid	Offer	Time	     Buy	Sell
675	37500	650	725	12:51:23	 	37,500
675	18750	650	725	12:51:48	 	18,750

<snip>

Which site did you get that list from?

[Griffin]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07...uk_over_phorm/

The way i read this, is by EU law phorm can only profile a person if they give consent. Therefore the only way for phorm to be legal is for people to opt in, in which case they would have a tracking cookie added. If they were to do it the other way & put a cookie on the people who dont opt in, the cookie could get blocked & thier system profile someone not opted in.

[phormwatch]

Originally Posted by mark777

A big thanks to all those who managed to get down to London today.

The link below appears to be where BT will post a summary of the AGM questions. There is nothing there yet, but should be later tomorrow.

http://www.btplc.com/Sharesandperfor.../Questions.htm

Hopefully some fretting going on in BT bunker tonight.

Presumably they will post the answers as well, and they wouldn't try to spin shareholders, would they?

I think we should keep a good eye on that website. If they try to mislead or misinform any of the shareholders in any way, we have another avenue of attack.

[Tarquin L-Smythe]

Just seen 100 people viewing this thread well done guys you certainly have stirred up new intrest

[davews]

Well done those who attended the protest, it looks to have worked out well.

For information Steve Gibson's Security Now SN53 with Alex's interview is now available from his servers:

http://media.grc.com/sn/sn-153-lq.mp3 for the 16kbs version

The HQ version will also be there but not sure of the link - when he initially uploads them he changes some of the letters to uppercase until it is 'officially' released.

Just downloaded it, but listening will have to wait till the morning.

Dave

[Andrewcrawford23]

BTW what si offical signature count on the downing street petition, had a nice call from virgin today trying to get me to take up 50mb when it comes, kinda pointed out depends on phorm if the implatment it all my services go bye bye and that about £70a month jsut now, person tried to say virgin aint dealign with phorm and there no such company had to laugh then hang up.

EDIT: Good work by those who protested

[Rchivist]

A warm welcome to any BT Shareholders or employees or ordinary members of the public enquiring about Webwise/Phorm for the first time and trying to find out exactly what all the fuss is about.

We are delighted to see you.

Please pop over and have a look at the BT Beta forums Webwise thread.

http://www.beta.bt.com/bta/forums/th...=3152&tstart=0

I'm afraid BT would only allow us one thread to discuss Webwise and Phorm but it's been lively. Today was a bit of a one man band, because several key contributors were away but if you scroll up you will see the discussion, and you can also search on Webwise in the BT beta forum search list to find earlier threads that got terminated. You don't need to login to view.

You might also find the Webwise FAQ from BT
http://www.beta.bt.com/bta/forums/ann.jspa?annID=64
- please compare it with another independent one here from a site opposed to Phorm/Webwise
http://www.phonecallsuk.co.uk/bt-webwise.html
and also to the information on these sites

http://www.inphormationdesk.org/welcome.htm - lots of info for first timers.
http://www.dephormation.org.uk/ - site concerned especially for the copyright issues that trouble those of us who run websites and don't want to be exploited without our consent, by Phorm/Webwise

These sites are a good place to start your learning curve on Phorm/Webwise.

The site put up by Mr Alex Hanff who organised todays demonstration is in an early stage but has lots of useful information already - there is a library of documents being built up, letters from regulators, leaked BT documents about the secret trials - a real resource.

https://nodpi.org/ - that is an https secure site, which is the only way we can guarantee that Phorm/Webwise won't profile it.

Happy reading - and come back!!

[madslug]

Originally Posted by Griffin

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07...uk_over_phorm/

The way i read this, is by EU law phorm can only profile a person if they give consent. Therefore the only way for phorm to be legal is for people to opt in, in which case they would have a tracking cookie added. If they were to do it the other way & put a cookie on the people who dont opt in, the cookie could get blocked & thier system profile someone not opted in.

The problem with using a cookie is that the system has to be able to read it. To read it, the system has to intercept the data stream.

The problem with the current system is that the OIX scripts hosted by partner sites is looking for the opt-in/out cookie to decide which advert to display. It reads as though the OIX will be targeting all visitors in some way - using a tracking cookie like the other ad networks? - so the current system relies on finding either a 'webwise cookie' or an 'oix cookie'.

The talk has been of providing a cookie-less variant for the final implementation. The technical details of this will make for some interesting reading. [The same code injection displayed by the 2006/7 trials? - similar to the NebuAd method]